According to a statement form Airlines for Europe (A4E), average delays per flight in the EU increased by over 400% in 2022 compare to 2021, “as Europe’s airspace capacity struggles to keep up with demand”. The gap between airline demand and the capacity of Europe’s airspace is in danger of never closing “as EU Member States again failed to provide adequate airspace capacity in 2022”, warns A4E.
The warning comes after the release of the latest annual report from the Performance Review Body (PRB) of the Single European Sky. The report presents the results of the monitoring of the air navigation services of the Single European Sky, assessing whether Members States achieved their targets in the key performance areas of safety, capacity, environment and cost-efficiency.
The review concluded delays “significantly exceeded the target” in 2022, with a 400% increase in the average delay per flight. The actual EU-wide average en route air traffic flow management (ATFM) delay increased from 0.32 minutes per flight in 2021 to 1.74 minutes per flight last year, 1.24 minutes per flight higher than the target and higher than in 2019, despite less IFR movements (the sum of take-offs and landings performed under instrument flight rules, calculated as the yearly average over the three years preceding the submission of the performance plan).
This isn’t just a report; it’s a call to action. We need to bolster Europe’s airspace capacity, drive reforms in its operations and pave the way for airlines to operate more efficiently.
Ourania Georgoutsakou, Managing Director A4E
The main cause for delays in 2022 was lack of air traffic control (ATC) capacity, followed by weather and other non-ATC reasons. The report further determined that airport terminal capacity performance deteriorated in 2022 compared to 2021, mostly due to disruptions and airport-related capacity problems. All-cause departure delays were at 19.03 minutes per flight.
Besides airport capacity issues, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) were found unprepared for the traffic recovery, while others suffered from network disruptions and some had difficulties caused by system transitions. The impact of the war in Ukraine also had an adverse effect. “If ANSPs do not implement capacity improvement measures as planned and/or do not deploy new systems without major disruptions, 2023 is expected to show increasing levels of delay”, the PRB warns.
“The situation is unlikely to get better any time soon as the PRB repeats a recommendation from last year that member states need to step up and take action now to avoid future capacity gaps”, A4E says. “Combined with strong traffic numbers and robust passenger demand, there is a perfect storm that will continue to impact airline operations and needlessly inconvenience millions of passengers. This could easily be avoided if member states used all means available to them to improve systems and plug the increasing gap between demand and capacity in Europe’s airspace.”
